Harvey Milk was just a Jewish kid from Woodmere but he grew up to become one of the most important civil rights leaders of his generation. Milk won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, becoming the first openly gay person to hold a political office in California.

 

A civil rights bill that Milk sponsored outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and passed by an overwhelming vote of 11-1. The only dissenter was fellow supervisor Dan White, the man who assassinated Milk on November 27, 1978 along with Mayor George Mosconeat inside San Francisco City Hall.

 

Milk was born in Woodmere in 1930, the youngest son of Jewish parents and grandson of local department store owner Morris Milk. Milk went on to graduate from Bay Shore High School in 1947. He joined the Navy during the Korean War serving aboard a submarine rescue ship as a diver. Sadly, he was given an "other than honorable" discharge from the Navy when he was forced to resign in 1955. Milk would have otherwise faced court-martial because of his homosexuality, according to reports.

 

Milk eventually became a teacher at George W. Hewlett High School in Hewlett Bay Park. He went on to other careers on Long Island including an insurance actuary and a researcher at a Wall Street firm where he was successful. He eventually moved off Long Island to California, opening a camera shop. It was there that he became an activist for gay rights and involved in politics.

 

Harvey Milk filling in for Mayor Moscone for a day in 1978. Photo: Daniel Nicoletta, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

In 1978, a disgruntled former San Francisco Supervisor named Dan White shot and killed Mayor Mosconeat and Supervisor Milk. His trial became known for the infamous “Twinkie Defense,” when his defense attorney argued that White’s actions were in part caused by an affinity for sugary snacks.

 

Over the years, Milk’s legacy had been solidified in print and on film, most notably the 2009 biopic starring Sean Penn who won the Academy Award for Best Actor portraying Milk. In 2016, the Navy also honored Milk by naming an oil tanker after him. Milk was posthumously honored by President Barack Obama with a Presidential Medal of Freedom and he was featured on a US postage stamp.

 

When he awarded the Medal of Freedom to Milk, President Obama said, “Harvey Bernard Milk dedicated his life to shattering boundaries and challenging assumptions.”

 

“As one of the first openly gay elected officials in this country, he changed the landscape of opportunity for the nation's gay community,” he added. “Throughout his life, he fought discrimination with visionary courage and conviction. Before his tragic death in 1978, he wisely noted, ‘Hope will never be silent,’ and called upon Americans to stay true to the guiding principles of equality and justice for all. Harvey Milk's voice will forever echo in the hearts of all those who carry forward his timeless message.”